Snake Charmer
by Kaen Okami
Summary: Crona discovers that there are a few upsides to being born as a witch's child.


" _I have to face the fear. I have to take control of the situation and find a way to make it less frightening."_

\- Tris Prior, _Divergent_

~0~

Technically, it was not a zoo - it was an _ecology center,_ as Maka had insisted on correcting Soul three times now, growing more annoyed each time. But Crona didn't see how the name mattered: either way, it was still one of the most interesting places that they had ever been. They thought they had seen the best when, after hearing about their liking for animals, Liz and Patty had taken an afternoon to show them all the animal shelters in Death City, but this was that day taken to new heights.

Crona had never seen so many different animals in one place before: baby goats that would eat the provided feed right out of their hand, bald eagles that sat at the top of their towering perches either studying the crowd below or squawking at each other, the most judgmental-looking fox they had ever seen (Soul had noticed its gaze on him and had then engaged in a brief but intense staring contest with it before Maka dragged him away), two bears that swung in the thick hammock and splashed in the pool of their enclosure, a peacock that had come up to the fence and looked right at Crona before unfurling his stunning plumage, and several that they hadn't even known the names for before.

From what Maka had read, a good portion of the animals here had been perfectly healthy donations to the center, but some had been rescues like the shelter dogs and cats, who were being taken care of here since they couldn't live in the wild anymore. This concept was yet another thing that Crona had never even heard of prior to living in Death City, but that they had instantly fallen in love with, and they thought that they would never get enough of this day out.

"So, Maka, where are we going next?" they asked, as the group headed out of the birds' area. It occurred to them that they couldn't remember the last time they'd smiled for this long.

"The reptile house, it's right over there!" Maka answered brightly, pointing to the small stone building across the food court.

Instantly, both their smile and their stomach dropped. "Uh...What kind of reptiles do they have?"

Maka picked up on their hesitation and looked confused for a moment, before getting it a moment later. "Oh! Well, they do have a few snakes, but we don't have to go near them if they're going to freak you out."

"I'm cool with just skipping the reptiles altogether if that would be better for you," Soul put in. "But you know, all the snakes are going to be in tanks. There's no way they'd be able to touch you, let alone hurt you."

"N-No...I'll be fine. I don't think they'd hurt me. They're just like the other animals here, right?" Crona said, attempting a small, shaky smile. "It shouldn't be a problem."

It _shouldn't_ be, they told themself firmly: it wasn't good for them to think of their mother every time they saw a snake, and they didn't like feeling so uncomfortable around an animal, especially one that wouldn't really do anything wrong on its own. Besides, everyone was trying to help them move on from what had happened to them, and it stood to reason that they should try to take a few steps forward on their own.

"I'll be fine," they said, trying for a more confident tone. "Don't worry about it. Let's go!"

~0~

The reptile house was, at first, really nothing to worry about. It was home to a whole other host of creatures that Crona had never seen before. Ragnarok was especially excited by the "mini-alligator" _(caiman,_ Maka corrected him) and the venom-jawed Komodo dragon, and for a good ten minutes, Crona looked with fascination at the patterns on each of the turtles' and tortoises' shells and tried to pick out each of the chameleons hiding in their enclosure.

They had almost forgotten why they had been nervous in the first place, and so when they turned away from the lizards only to come eye-to-eye with a large brown python, they jumped back, startled. The snake, coiled up under a heat lamp, was nonplussed, as if this happened every day.

"Uh...Hello," Crona muttered. "Nice to meet you?"

The python looked back at them with only mild interest, and they got the sense that he did not share the sentiment. So they moved on down the new wing, making themself take at least a little look at each of the snakes that lined it. They were all every different - from the languid green and white boa constrictor, to the stony-gray viper that took one look at the zoo patrons and slithered sullenly out of sight, to the sleek black cobra that lifted its head to stare at Crona curiously even as they turned away. But every single one of them, pretty as they were, brought back memories of their mother's eyes, sharp and cold as iron, of watching her skin ripple and writhe with the thousand snakes moving beneath it, of the huge forms of Vinea and Vetis sliding off of her arms, fangs long and sharp as needles,

eager to give their mistress' child a demonstration of how to kill when she ordered it. They had thought they could forget when they saw how harmless these snakes were, but...

Maka noticed them start to tremble, and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Crona, we can still go if you want."

"No, it's fine...I want to try and see all of them," they assured her, and would have said more if someone else hadn't caught their attention.

"Hey, Maka, Crona, check this out," Soul said from the nearby corner of the wing.

Maka turned first and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw what her boyfriend had in his hands. "Soul, _what_ are you doing with that snake?!"

"Holding him," Soul said with a smirk, glancing at the long silver snake and then to the pair of zoo employees behind him. "It is a him, right?"

Both of them nodded. "Pearl's a good boy," assured the girl, who wore an even larger snake over her shoulders and under her blonde ponytail like a boa, making her look even smaller than she already was. "So long as you stay calm and relaxed, like you're doing."

"Yeah, he won't hurt you," her partner said, acid green eyes glinting under uneven bangs. "Unless he decides to hurt you."

" _Jack,_ I told you to stop scaring the kids! Especially if you can't even be original about it," the blonde girl snapped, then her tone softened as Maka and Crona tentatively approached the three of them. "Don't worry. Corn snakes aren't venomous, and they're small, as snakes go. And these two are very used to humans, so as long as you listen to us and be careful, there's nothing to worry about."

"Um...What are their names?" Crona asked from behind Maka.

"The gray one your buddy's holding is named Pearl," Jack said, and then pointed to the snake around his friend's shoulders. "And that pink one there is named Peony, because _my_ buddy Cenza here is a total nerd."

Cenza rolled her eyes. "Better than being you, who hasn't cracked a book since elementary school." She turned to Soul and asked, more kindly, "Would you mind giving Pearl back to Jack now? We only let patrons do this for a couple minutes, for Pearl and Peony's health."

"Sure thing." When Soul carefully held Pearl back out to Jack, the snake slithered happily back onto the shoulders of his long-haired keeper, and all of a sudden Crona got an idea.

"Uh...Would it be okay if I held one too?"

Jack opened his mouth, but Cenza spoke over him. "Have you handled snakes before?"

"K-Kind of...My mother had lots of them, but I never got to hold them before."

"Okay, then we'll need you to be very careful, do anything and everything we say concerning the snakes, and most importantly, not panic or do anything to startle them. Can you do all that?"

"I can do that," Crona said in their best attempt at a confident tone, half to the keeper and half to Maka, who was looking concerned.

Cenza noticed and reassured them, "Don't worry, there's nothing to be nervous about. All four of us have done this plenty of times before, and we've never had anything bad happen."

"Thanks, that's good to hear. Is it all right if I hold Peony instead of Pearl?" Crona added, noticing for the first time that the pink snake had lifted its head and appeared to be looking intently at them (unlike Pearl, who rested apathetically on Jack's broad shoulders).

"Sure - oh, yeah, she kind of matches your hair, doesn't she?" Cenza giggled. "Okay, what you're going to want to do is hold out your hands - very good - and keep your hands here and here. Stay still and calm, and don't do anything sudden or that might spook her."

"I did that once and she ran up my sleeve," Jack put in brightly. "So let's try to avoid that kind of thing, huh?"

Without taking her eyes off her snake, Cenza growled, "Jack Roth, if you scare this child, I will take you out back and shoot you, I swear - "

"Chill, Cenza, the kid's doing fine. Look at Peony, she's loving this."

"What do you mean - Oh! She...Wow, she seems to really like you, kid," Cenza said, raising her eyebrows. Pearl hadn't had much of a reaction to being in Soul's hands, but Peony was still lifting her head and looking right into Crona's face, that part of her body swaying back and forth as if in greeting. "I've never seen her do this with a patron before."

Crona barely heard her, staring at the snake lying loosely in their hands. It was strange...The more they held Peony, the stronger the sense of contentment they thought they could feel from her was. "Do snakes actually _like_ people, though?"

"Well...Not in the strictest definition," Cenza explained. "Pet snakes won't love their owners like a cat or a dog will. Their sort of affection is based on trust. If they know that a human will protect them and care for them, they'll trust them enough to be calm and relaxed when they're around or when they're touching them. Like, they _can_ connect with their owner beyond just keeping them around for food and stuff; Peony will try to get my attention from inside her tank even when she's already warm and totally full, just so she can lie on my chest or my leg."

"Yeah, Pearlie does the same thing for me - he is just _totally_ relaxed right now, because he trusts me to be a safe person," Jack added, stroking the silver snake's neck with one finger. "They're like little kids - long, colorful, noodly little kids."

Crona glanced over at Maka and Soul, who looked just as surprised and interested as they felt, and then back to Peony. "So you really like me, huh?" they murmured to her. "That's nice, I like you too. You're really cute."

Even if they hadn't been able to somehow sense the spike in the snake's happiness at the sound of their voice, they would have been able to tell Peony was pleased anyway when she stopped bobbing her head and laid it and the first third of her body down on their forearm, her small dark eyes still fixed on their face. "Oh...Miss Cenza, is this what she does with you?"

"Yeah! I don't know what you're doing that she likes so much, but whatever it is, it must be great."

"In that case, thank you both," they said. "I'll definitely come back soon...Should I give her back now?"

"Sure," Cenza said, reaching out and taking Peony back into her hands. "We're usually only out here for twenty minutes to a half-hour at a time, so Pearl and Peony don't get too stressed out by all the handling, but I'm sure she'll be excited to see you again."

"I will be, too, thanks again!" Crona said, giving the two an awkward wave before turning to leave with Maka and Soul.

~0~

"So," Soul asked as the group exited the reptile house and made their way to the food court. "Do you want to explain what happened back there? Because that was one of the coolest things I've ever seen you do."

"Yeah, it's like you turned into Harry Potter for a minute there!" Maka added excitedly, making both of her friends smile. "Did you know that they would respond to you that way?"

"W-Well, no, not exactly...But I think I know why it happened," Crona began tentatively, trying to remember everything they had been able to gather in their childhood about this particular facet of being witch-born. "I...My mother never actually explained this to me, but some books in her library talked about it. You know how every witch has a special connection to a certain animal, right?"

Both of them nodded, and Crona went on, "Well, it turns out that when a witch has children, those children have a connection to her animal too. It's not anywhere near as strong - I couldn't have a real conversation with the snakes or make them do whatever I tell them to the way she could - but I guess I can sort of tell what they're feeling, and I'm pretty sure it makes them recognize me as her child, and know that I'm someone they can trust not to hurt them, like Miss Cenza said. I wasn't sure if it would happen with regular snakes, though. I've only ever been close to the magic ones before."

At that point, Ragnarok flowed out from between Crona's shoulder blades to chime in. "Yeah, all the time when Crona was little, she used to let those two big snakes - Vinea and Vetis, I think she named them - off her arms to watch him while she worked in the lab. 'If I come back to find him damaged, I'm feeding you to your brothers and sisters!'" he said, deepening his voice into a poor imitation of Medusa's. " _Her_ mother's animal was a raven. You wanna know how we figured that out?"

"Uh...Sure," Maka said tentatively.

"Okay, it didn't happen that often, but when we'd go somewhere and it turned out there were ravens nearby, _every single one of them_ would start following us around. Like, flying above us, or lining up on branches or phone lines or wherever."

"And they would just _stare_ at her," Crona put in, their eyes widening. "Like they were judging her. It was so _weird."_

"Yeah, it was like that part from the second _Omen_ movie or some shit!" Ragnarok shouted, leaning closer to the other two. "Except she didn't get her eyes pecked out...Or get hit by a truck...It's a shame, I'd have loved to see that."

"And she never explained what was going on, either. She just glared at the ravens, or sometimes threw her arrows at them, but they never all went away until we left. One One time I heard her muttering to herself, 'It's like they _know,'_ but other than that she never said anything about it." They paused, looking thoughtful. "You know, this is probably why she hates that Edgar Allen Poe guy so much..."

Soul raised an eyebrow. "So if that happened with all of her old lady's birds, do you think that you could do what you did back there with any snake, Crona?"

"I...I'm not sure. I guess I could try. But I don't know if every snake out there will be as nice as Peony, even if I _am_ a snake witch's child."

"Well," Ragnarok said, lightly batting Crona's head back and forth. "There's only one way to find out, isn't there? I heard one of those hot twins talking the other day."

"I told you, Liz and Patty aren't twins - "

"Shut up! And let me talk..."

~0~

"The ravens did all _that_ to your mom?" Patty giggled. "That's so funny! Reminds me of the time we had a mission in Australia and all these weird cow birds kept dive-bombing Kid! Did they ever dive-bomb your mom?"

"What are cow birds?" a puzzled Crona asked, from where they sat on the other side of one of the manor's many dens. Medusa had mentioned a few times how much she despised Australian wildlife, but somehow they didn't get the feeling that that was what she'd been thinking of.

" _Magpies,"_ Kid explained, with more than a little distaste in his voice at the memory. "Disgusting birds. I know that my hair is less than perfect, but that's no reason to _peck_ at it relentlessly. I doubt it personally offended _them."_

"Oh...Well, I can't remember the ravens ever doing anything like that while I was there. But I know that they went after her a few times when she was alone. There was one time she went out with my father, and when they came back she was really angry; her hair was all messed up and there were claw marks on her face - "

"And Crona's douchebag dad was laughing like a fucking hyena," Ragnarok cut in. "I don't know why, but he thought it was hilarious if she got angry or beat in a fight or something. He didn't even stop laughing when she got _really_ pissed and started roundhousing him in the stomach. I don't know, he was weird as fuck."

Patty nodded knowingly. "Sounds like this one crackhead _our_ mom met once."

Kid blinked, thrown for a loop. "I'm sorry, how did this become the topic of conversation?"

But before anyone could answer him, the door opened. "Hey," Liz greeted the three of them as she walked in pushing a tank on a cart. "So like I said on the phone, I know a guy who knows a guy, and somehow I ended up snake-sitting for a weekend."

"What kind of snake is it?" Crona asked.

"Just a garter snake, nothing too difficult. The guy gave me a whole pamphlet that he typed up himself on how to take care of his 'little buddy,' so that hasn't been too bad, especially since it is really little. But still, I don't think I'd want to live with even one snake all the time, let alone a whole bunch of them like you did," she said, stopping the cart in front of Crona's chair and gesturing at the tank. "Okay, meet Buster. Why he named this skinny thing Buster and his Doberman Noodle instead of the other way around, I'll never know."

Crona peered through the glass, and found that the snake had located them far more quickly than they had seen him. Buster was already up at the side of the tank and staring with his small, round eyes, lifting the front half of his body and holding it straight like a periscope as he appraised Crona. Though he was smaller than Pearl and Peony had been, his scales were, instead of Peony's soft pink, a striking black and yellow.

 _Not my colors._ Hers, _this time._

A shiver ran down their spine at the unwelcome thought, and they shut their eyes. _No. It's okay. They're not like her. He's just curious, that's all. He'll be nice to you._

They took a deep breath, opened their eyes, and gently lifted Buster out of the tank the way Cenza had taught them. "Hello...Um, I don't know if you can really understand me, but...Do you know who I am?"

A brief flash of excitement that was not their own ran through them. Exactly one second later, Buster ducked downward and slithered up Crona's arm, settling on their shoulder and laying his small head beside their neck, and Crona went very still to accommodate him. Liz and Kid just stared at the satisfied snake, but Patty just burst out into gleeful laughter.

"That proves it, Crona! All the snakes love you!"

"Yeah..." Crona murmured, petting Buster's head with one finger, a smile growing on their face. "I guess they do."

~0~

Maka smiled as she watched Crona open up yet another tab on their laptop (a birthday gift from Stein) and start scrolling through another set of pictures of different kinds of snakes. For them, yesterday seemed to have sparked a new fascination with the creatures that they had been afraid of not long before. Of course, that fear hadn't been completely erased; the smile on their face would falter and their eyes would turn pale if they saw a large snake with a striking black-and-gold color scheme, or one that was about to attack. But they avoided those when they could, in search of ones that appealed to them more.

Every five minutes, it seemed, their face would light up and they would call over the nearest person to look at their latest discovery: a whole group of snakes in various vivid colors and one with black scales with rainbow hues like an oil slick on the road ("Soul, look, they're like _paintings,_ do you think I could ask Patty to draw some of them?"), a few curious ones reaching up and bopping the camera with their tiny noses ("They've probably never seen a camera before!"), the wide smile of a black mamba ("I know they're actually really venomous, but they look so _happy."),_ tiny snakes in sweaters and hats ("I really can't tell which I like better!"), and so many more.

From across the kitchen table, she noticed a small smile on Soul's face, too. "Are they getting you as interested in this as I am?" she leaned over to whisper to him. "I didn't know there were so _many_ different kinds of snakes."

"Yeah, me neither. Got to admit, there's some really cool stuff out there." He turned to her with a mischievous smirk. "When do you think I should tell them to look up the Brazilian penis snake?" A second later, the unabridged edition of _Les Miserables_ slammed into his skull. " _Ow! Shit,_ Maka, it was just a joke!"

"Soul Eater Evans, _never_ let me hear you say those words in that order _ever again!"_

 **~0~**


End file.
